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International College of Dentists Inducts FirstHealth Dental Director

| Date Posted: 11/13/2015

Sharon Nicholson Harrell, DDS, MPH, FAGD

PINEHURST – Sharon Nicholson Harrell, DDS, MPH, director of FirstHealth Dental Care, was inducted as a Fellow of the International College of Dentists at the organization’s 86th Annual Convocation in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 6.

An honorary organization, the International College of Dentists recognizes outstanding and meritorious service to the profession and community. During the ceremony, Dr. Harrell received a membership plaque, a gold lapel pin and a gold key symbolic of the Fellowship for her services to the “art and science of dentistry.”

Some 310 dentists from the U.S. were inducted into the College of Dentists, which has more than 11,000 members (including around 6,500 in the U.S.) in representative chapters in more than 120 countries.

Since 1998, Dr. Harrell and the dentists and staff at FirstHealth Dental Care have provided dental services to more than 26,000 underserved children in Moore, Montgomery and Hoke counties. The program serves children from birth to 21 years who receive Medicaid or Health Choice or who are uninsured and qualify by income level.

About 70 percent of the children seen during the program’s first year of operation had either never seen a dentist at all or hadn’t been to the dentist in more than a year. Now, the dental program averages more than 1,000 visits a month across the three centers and accepts about 100 new patients per month.